LEISURE BALANCE PTY LTD

RECREATION SPECIALISTS

Specialising in Recreation, Sport &
Community Access for people with disabilities

What we do......

We provide a unique service for individuals with disabilities to improve their quality of life through participation in recreational activities of their choice.

Our aim is to support people to balance their life with leisure. This can help with adjustment to disability, improved self confidence and independence through participation in chosen quality recreational and social options.

We are a innovative team of professionals with unique skills and experience to support people with disabilities to pursue and develop their interests.

We support individual choice and aim to address all areas of a person's recreational & social needs.

We explore recreation/social options based on individual interests, skill level and future potential abilities. Many options are offered including individual activities, group, mainstream &/or specialised programs.

We recognise that all people have individual needs and encourage independence. We also acknowledge that all people change over time as do their recreational needs

We work with clients in Victoria, Australia who are funded by:
~ TAC
~ WORKCOVER
~ SUPPORT & CHOICE, DHS FUNDING
~ ACL PACKAGES
~ SLOW TO RECOVER FUNDING
~ PRIVATE FUNDING
~ OTHER FUNDING SOURCES

Who should be referred

·        Clients transitioning from rehabilitation to a community based program

·        Clients who have an unhealthy focus on therapy, particularly when therapy progress is minimal

·        Clients who do not have the confidence yet to explore vocational or study options

• Clients who are years post injury, when therapy is no longer appropriate and the majority of the client’s time involves avocational activities

Recreation Specialist's role:

• Conduct a recreation assessment & written report of individual client's recreational interests, needs, skills and potential abilities

• Provide client and family with information on appropriate individual and group leisure options considering disability

• Work with families to support client and family recreational options, 

• If appropriate work with client and pre-accident friends to support them to stay involved with the client and provide natural support network

• Link in with mainstream community based services or sporting groups or specialised groups for people with disabilities

• Assess and review the support needed to enable a client to participate in chosen community based leisure/recreational activities including individual and shared care

• Assist client to become as independent as possible in chosen leisure pursuits

• Enhance peer support networks

Expertise in acquired disabilities including:

• Acquired brain injury
• Spinal cord injury
• Amputations
• Sensory disabilities
• Orthopaedic injuries
• Brachial plexus injuries

Our work is based on the belief that quality recreation is a essential part of everyone's life.

We focus on individual needs and goals and endeavour to develop a recreation/social program, which will be on-going, sustainable and will modify to meet the client's changing needs. We also have a strong belief that clients should participate in activities as independently as possible.

Clients are supported to pursue their interests with appropriate support. Ideally this support is established through the community. This may be through linking the client with a volunteer from a mainstream community based club, providing initial support to the client and then monitoring participation, providing education to the Club members regarding the client's needs to successful participate.

RECREATION SERVICES

Recreation assessment & evaluation of individual client's needs
This assessment enables us to get a leisure profile, establish the client's recreational and social goals and develop a plan to support the client. We also explore other factors in the client's life, which may affect successful participation in chosen leisure pursuits.

Providing information on appropriate leisure options considering disability
Through our extensive experience in the field we are able to advise the client, family members and friends on what activities or sports are most suitable given the client's disabilities. We know if it reasonable for a client to try and return to a previous leisure activity or if new pursuits should be explored.

Exploration of appropriate leisure/sporting options
We are able to support the client to trial a previous or new recreational activity and then develop a plan to support the client to participate regularly.

Providing information on adapted equipment & techniques
We have a good knowledge of specialised adapted recreation equipment to assist clients to participate in an activity as independently as possible. Often we are able to arrange a trial of equipment to establish if it is appropriate for the client.

Linking in with mainstream community based services or sporting groups
We frequently work with mainstream groups to support a client's introduction and on-going involvement with the group. Sometimes this involves educating the club members regarding the client's needs, or finding and supporting a volunteer from the club to be the support person for the client, or initially attending the club with the client to provide appropriate assistance. If necessary, we will continue to work with the club to monitor client's on-going participation.

Referral to specialised recreation and social groups
We have an extensive knowledge of the specialised groups available to people with disabilities and can therefore make appropriate referrals and provide support if required.

Providing support to friends and developing social support teams
More and more we are endeavouring to work with friends to assist them to support the client to reach their recreational goals. Sometimes we work with individual friends or with groups of friends. This focus on friends can lead to valuable, sustainable and natural supports for the client. As friends easily lose contact with our clients, this focus should be started as early in the rehabilitation process as possible.

Linking clients together
As we have a fairly large number of clients we are able to facilitate social contact between clients. This can sometimes develop into quality and valued friendships. Sometimes this involves supporting a number of clients to access a mainstream club or organization together.

Leisure counselling & Resourcing
Some clients and their families are very focussed on rehabilitation when the client is no longer making significant gains. We slowly try and change the focus to address quality of life issues rather than therapy.

Establishment & review of leisure focussed attendant care programs
At times it is appropriate to use support workers to assist a person access recreation pursuits. We are able to establish and monitor these programs to ensure that the client's recreation needs are supported appropriately and that support is modified as required. Frequently we work closely with occupational therapists on these programs.

Support to set up holiday/respite options
We are able to assist clients to plan a holiday or work closely with other specialised "holiday" agencies to meet the client's holiday or respite needs.

Staff inservices on leisure/recreation
We often run inservices for professionals outlining recreation for people with disabilities.

Volunteer Work
We often support our clients to participate in volunteer work if it does not have a vocational focus.